This weekend, Speech and Debate members will load themselves onto a bus and head over to Ritenour High School in order to compete in GSL finals. Their competition will take place on two days. The debate members will compete on Fri. Jan. 20 and the speech members’ will be competing on Sat. Jan. 21.

The GSL (Greater Saint Louis) finals is a tournament for speech and debate students at schools in the St. Louis area. There are different categories in which speech members can compete in.

“It’s kind of like in sports when you go to finals, just a big fancy tournament with the best of the best,” sophomore and first-time competitor for FHN, Brittany Steck, said.

At GSL finals,students are judged on their introduction for the piece, their delivery, emotions, stage presence, good eye contact and diction. The students must also be able to have interpretation of the piece.

“I hope our team continues to grow with more experience and people wanting to learn about speech and debate,” junior, Alex Callier, who will be reading poems for the judges, said.

Junior Aurora Blanchard is a member of speech and debate and will be performing a prose piece from Memoirs of a Geisha during GSL finals.

“That really propelled our team to do well the rest of the season,” junior, Aurora Blanchard, who will be performing a prose piece from Memoirs of a Geisha, said.